The Collapse of State Power, the Cluniac Reform Movement, and the Origins of Urban Self-Government in Medieval Europe

Abstract

Several generations of scholarship have identified the medieval development of urban self-government as crucial for European patterns of state formation. However, extant theories, emphasizing structural factors such as initial endowments and warfare, do little to explain the initial emergence of institutions of urban self-government before CE 1200 or why similar institutions did not emerge outside of Europe. We argue that a large-scale collapse of public authority in the ninth and tenth centuries allowed a bottom-up reform movement in West Francia (the Cluniac movement), directed by clergy but with popular backing, to push for ecclesiastical autonomy and asceticism in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. These social realignments, facilitated by new norms about ecclesiastical office holding, stimulated the urban associationalism that led to the initial emergence of autonomous town councils. Using a panel data set of 643 towns in the period between 800 and 1800, we show that medieval towns were substantially more likely to establish autonomous town councils in the period between 1000 and 1200 if they were situated in the vicinity of Cluniac monasteries. These findings are corroborated by regressions that use distance from Cluny—the movement's place of origin—to instrument for proximity to Cluniac monasteries.

Tilly Goes to Church: The Religious and Medieval Roots of European State Fragmentation

“…By emphasizing the role of medieval religious authorities, this analysis also contributes to a more recent literature that has emphasized the deep (and secular) history of the European state: the influence of the Crusades (Blaydes and Paik 2016), the development of legal systems (Cantoni and Yuchtman 2014;Møller 2019), cities and communes (Abramson 2017;Møller 2017), representative assemblies (Boucoyannis 2021;Stasavage 2010), and urban self-government and interdependence (Bosker, Eltjo, and van Zanden 2013;Møller and Doucette 2022). This study extends the framework first developed by Hintze ([1931] 1975) on the role of the Church in transmitting Roman precedents of the rule of law and the formalization of assemblies, as well as subsequent work exploring how the Church promoted the rule of law and diffused selfgovernment (Bendix 1978;Doucette and Møller 2021;Ergang 1971;Fukuyama 2011;Kiernan 1965;Møller 2019;Møller and Doucette 2022;Poggi 1990).…”

“…The mechanisms of this earlier episode of state formation thus consisted of both rivalry and emulation, of both temporal alliances and ideological weapons, rather than interstate conflict that somehow necessitated state institutions. This argument builds on both an older tradition that notes how the Church helped to diffuse the rule of law and administrative norms throughout Europe, and more recent work that emphasizes the importance of the Church to medieval state building and its legacies (Hintze [1931Bendix 1978;Doucette and Møller 2021;Ergang 1971;Fukuyama 2011;Grzymala-Busse 2020;Kiernan 1965;Møller and Doucette 2022;Poggi 1990). The contribution of this analysis is to compare the impact of the Church to other sources of fragmentation, specify the secular and temporal tactics used by the Church, and draw our attention to the direct mechanisms that helped to fragment territorial authority (papal conflict) and the indirect ones (empowering nobles and communes).…”

“…Cathedral chapters founded schools to study canon law, and kept records and relied on written documents, lowering transaction costs and allowing information to spread (Blum and Dudley 2001). Monasteries were a source of theological advances, a literate culture, and reformist zeal (Doucette and Møller 2021). The church further chartered universities and promoted the study of law starting in the late eleventh century.…”

“…Among their first targets in the twelfth century were the Hohenstaufen emperors (1079–1254), whom they denounced as a “brood of vipers” for their designs on Italian territories (Abulafia 1999, 506; Toch 1999). Second, there is sequencing: the Empire fragmented after papal efforts began in earnest in the late twelfth century, but not before (see Figure 1 and Doucette and Møller 2021). Popes did not target already fragmented territories.…”

Medieval Origins of the European State System: The Catholic Church as Midwife

“…This sequence was set in train when the papal Church declared its independence from secular power in the 11 th century (Berman 1983;Bisson 2009;Oakley 2012;Møller 2019;Doucette and Møller 2020). The Church was able to back its declaration of independence with a formidable normative or ideological power (Mann 1986), which was effectively leveraged by the papal head of the Church in successive conflicts with temporal rulers.…”